1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of avocado seeds in order to obtain avocado oil enriched in alkyl polyols and/or acetylated derivatives thereof. Advantageously, said avocado seeds account for 10 to 50% by weight, in particular 20 to 40% by weight, relative to the total weight of avocado used. The invention also relates to a method for obtaining avocado oil enriched in alkyl polyols and/or acetylated derivatives thereof from at least avocado seeds, said avocado seeds accounting for 10 to 50%, in particular 20 to 40% by weight, relative to the total weight of avocado used. The invention also relates to avocado oil enriched in alkyl polyols and/or acetylated derivatives thereof, obtainable by this method. The invention also relates to the use of avocado oil in order to prepare an avocado oil concentrate enriched in alkyl polyols and/or acetylated derivatives thereof, or to prepare an avocado unsaponifiable enriched in alkyl polyols. Lastly, the invention relates to an avocado unsaponifiable enriched in alkyl polyols and/or acetylated derivatives thereof or an avocado oil concentrate enriched in alkyl polyols and/or acetylated derivatives thereof, obtainable from said avocado oil, for use as a drug, advantageously in the prevention and/or treatment of conjunctive tissue disorders such as arthrosis, articular pathologies such as rheumatism, or periodontal diseases such as gingivitis or periodontitis.
2. Description of Related Art
Since the 1990s, the worldwide market for the avocado has become diversified. The principal channels remain directed mainly towards export or local markets, depending on the producer country. However, the volumes destined for industry are growing rapidly and are generally related to the processing of fresh pulp into edible products, as well as the production of avocado oil of edible or cosmetic quality.
These latter applications, although they may remain marginal relative to the tonnages dedicated to the marketing of the avocado as a fresh market fruit, make it possible to make use of fruits discarded from the sorting process and fruits rejected by this market. These represent a raw material with a much more acceptable entry cost.
These processing industries are chiefly devoted to adding value to avocado pulp. As a result they generate by-products, resulting from the pulp removal process. For example, the industries that produce guacamole and edible and cosmetic avocado oil, obtained by centrifugation, use only avocado pulp. Thus, very large quantities of co-products, namely the avocado fruits' seeds and peels, are generated which are not made profitable use of by the food processing industry.
Avocado oil is indeed stored mainly in the storage cells of the pulp, i.e., the idioblasts. The avocado seed is low in oil and thus holds only little interest for oil producers.
Markets have been studied and developed to try to develop these by-products, namely the peels and the seeds, such as spreading, mulching, horticulture and animal feeds, but they do not provide genuine added-value.
However, even if the constituent parts of the avocado, namely the peels and the seeds, are naturally low in oil, they contain compounds constituent of the unsaponifiable with a potential as active ingredients and with high added value.
Nevertheless, as these compounds are in small quantities in these parts of the fruit, such as the seeds, they are as a result difficult to reach and to extract. The high water content of the various constituent parts of avocados makes them difficult to work with and makes it nearly impossible to process them by the physical extraction methods known to those skilled in the art under acceptable economic conditions.
Furthermore, the low content of oil and of active compounds in avocado seeds preclude the application of a physical treatment by mechanical pressure, this technique being insufficiently effective to process products with oil contents lower than 10%.
Only solvent extraction thus appears possible, although beyond the fact that this method requires a complex technology, it is well-known to be expensive and polluting, with an impact on man and on the environment.
There thus existed a need to find a method that makes it possible, at low cost, to add value to these active compounds potentially available in easily accessible co-products.
In the past few decades, knowledge of the chemistry of the avocado has expanded considerably. Several families of compounds, for example, have been isolated and identified from the fruits and many studies have been carried out to demonstrate their biological activities. The composition of the unsaponifiable fraction of avocado oil was studied in particular.
The co-products of the avocado processing industry, and notably the seeds, are low in oil, but contain all or some of the constituent compounds of the unsaponifiable. In particular, compounds of the alkyl polyols type are constituents of avocado unsaponifiable, and are known to be of particular interest in the treatment of conjunctive tissue disorders, such as arthrosis.
There has thus been interest in finding a method that makes it possible to extract at lower cost some constituent compounds of avocado unsaponifiable, as mentioned above, in particular from co-products or by-products of the avocado processing industry, such as avocado seeds.
The present invention fills this need. The Applicant has thus discovered a novel method for obtaining avocado oil enriched in alkyl polyols or acetylated derivatives thereof, notably from avocado seed.